Three Huge Ways Pakistan Still Isn't Cooperating
source: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/02/18/Three_Huge_Ways_Pakistan_Still_Isnt_Coopera...
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The dramatic news of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar's capture has revived a long-dormant spirit of optimism regarding the U.S.-led effort in Afghanistan. Eager for a clear-cut victory after the country's slow-motion collapse during the past five years, many hoped that the arrest of Baradar, Taliban leader Mullah Omar's top deputy, would not only be a turning point for the NATO war effort in Afghanistan, but would also usher in a new era of cooperation with Pakistan's main spy agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI)...
..."The basic problem is that there are things we don't know about this operation, and that we will probably never know," says Teresita Schaffer, director of the South Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The most optimistic explanation is that the ISI thinks the Afghan Taliban has become a threat to its interests in Pakistan, and has decided to move against the group. But Schaffer also floated another, less cheerful, possibility: Baradar, as suggested by this Newsweek profile, is more open to negotiations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government than some of the Taliban hierarchy's hard-line members. The ISI could have arrested him in a bid to thwart negotiations meant to assimilate the Afghan Taliban back into Afghanistan's political fold, which would likely cost Pakistan its influence as the group's patron. In other words, given the information available to the public, the Pakistanis could have arrested Baradar with the hopes of halting Taliban attacks against NATO forces in Afghanistan -- or they could have arrested him in an attempt to continue those attacks.
Even assuming that Baradar's arrest is a step in the right direction, there remains a long list of issues on which the United States and the Pakistani military do not see eye to eye....
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..."The basic problem is that there are things we don't know about this operation, and that we will probably never know," says Teresita Schaffer, director of the South Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. The most optimistic explanation is that the ISI thinks the Afghan Taliban has become a threat to its interests in Pakistan, and has decided to move against the group. But Schaffer also floated another, less cheerful, possibility: Baradar, as suggested by this Newsweek profile, is more open to negotiations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government than some of the Taliban hierarchy's hard-line members. The ISI could have arrested him in a bid to thwart negotiations meant to assimilate the Afghan Taliban back into Afghanistan's political fold, which would likely cost Pakistan its influence as the group's patron. In other words, given the information available to the public, the Pakistanis could have arrested Baradar with the hopes of halting Taliban attacks against NATO forces in Afghanistan -- or they could have arrested him in an attempt to continue those attacks.
Even assuming that Baradar's arrest is a step in the right direction, there remains a long list of issues on which the United States and the Pakistani military do not see eye to eye....
see link for full story
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